Factions

(1) Deliberately misleading mixtures of facts and fiction, such as propaganda via chatbots (see the U.S. 2016 presidential election); (2) Unintentionally confusing or self-deceptive mixtures of facts and fictions in digital spaces; (3) Conspiracy theories via a collision of intentionally manipulated deep fakes or other AI-related tools; and (4) Artfully presented nonfiction that intentionally uses techniques of persuasion or, conversely, artfully presented fiction that uses nonfiction (“based on a true story”) as a tool for persuasion (see self-help sites or sites based on fictional stories).

According to our friend Google’s dictionary entry: “Faction (2) a literary and cinematic genre in which real events are used as a basis for a fictional narrative or dramatization. ‘the current vogue for faction seems about to overwhelm narrative history’ Origin: 1960s: blend of fact and fiction. From Oxford.’”

Furthermore—

English
Suffix
-faction
“production, process, making”

« Back to Glossary Index